OPENING STATEMENT BY CHAIRPERSON OF WORKING GROUP ON INDIGENOUS POPULATIONS

HR/98/52
27 July 1998



The following is the opening statement of Erica-Irene A. Daes (Greece), Chairperson to the sixteenth session of the Working Group on Indigenous Populations. The Working Group will meet through Friday, 31 July.


“At the outset, I would like to express my grateful thanks to my Colleagues -members of the Working Group Professor Alfonso Martinez and Judge Guisse for electing me as Chairperson -Rapporteur of this important Working Group and for their generous and kind words. It is a particular honor to be once again charged with the great responsibility of chairing the prestigious United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations.

I am conscious of the trust that my colleagues-members of the Working Group confer upon me. I take this opportunity of assuring them and all participants in particular the representatives of Indigenous nations and observer governments that I undertake these duties and responsibilities with thoughtfulness and seriousness. It is my intention to conduct the current sixteenth session of the Working Group, as I have done since I was elected Chairperson in 1984, in an open, fair, democratic and constructive manner. In this regard, I respectfully appeal to all of you to help the chair to conduct the deliberations of the Working Group in a most equitable and productive way. We have already established working practices, which I believe have earned this Working Group the admiration and respect of the world's indigenous peoples, Governments and the United Nations system. We have created a forum in which serious and often distressing situations can be peacefully discussed and understood better, and a forum where positive actions and substantive solutions can be shared between all concerned. Our recommendations are action oriented and thanks to our parent bodies the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities and the Commission on Human Rights the most of them have been already implemented. I wish to request all of you to assist me to continue to maintain this spirit of openness, cooperation , frankness , liberalism and effectiveness in the five days that follow.

I should like now to welcome all participants to the sixteenth session of the Working Group. I know that some participants have traveled long distances at great expense and we the members of the Working Group greatly appreciate the efforts you have made in being with us to share your experiences and to contribute to our work. I should like to offer a special welcome to the 48 indigenous representatives that have been supported by the United Nations Voluntary Fund on Indigenous Populations as well as the 5 indigenous fellows who are participating in the United Nations Indigenous Fellowship Programme within the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

As the Chairperson-Rapporteur of this Working Group for now 15 years, you will allow me to review briefly the contribution made by the Working Group to the protection of the rights of indigenous peoples and to make some general comments before commencing our work. I want to recall the first meeting which I had the honor to chair in 1984. There were few governmental observers , only about 40 indigenous representatives and some representatives of the NGO's. Whole regions of the world, in which indigenous peoples live, were under represented or not represented at all. It would have been unthinkable that the General Assembly might one day proclaim an International Year of the World's Indigenous People and to celebrate it at the General Assembly Hall , even less that it would launch an International Decade, with the main goal to improving the living conditions of indigenous peoples around the globe; and in addition who could dare to believe that two Voluntary Funds should be created , in order substantively
and effectively to contribute to the participation of the indigenous peoples to the annual sessions of this Working Group and to the ad-hoc Working Group established by the Commission on Human Rights and to the implementation of the objectives of the International Decade.

Further, it could be difficult to assess at that time the significant contribution to the protection of the rights of indigenous peoples made by the studies and working papers, prepared by the members of the Working Group , like the study on treaties, the protection of the indigenous heritage and the paper on land rights. I should also like to underline that the elaboration of the historic draft of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was unbelievable at that time. United Nations bodies of the United Nations system, with the exception of the International Labour Office, had virtually no programmes or projects for indigenous peoples nor would they have thought them necessary .
In considering the progress that has been made , allow me to point out that this Working Group has been perhaps the single most influential international forum within the United Nations.

In my view every significant change and achievement that has occurred affecting indigenous peoples owes much to the constructive and peaceful work undertaken by all of the participants here and in particular the indigenous representatives and the representatives of governments. The Working Group or as I call it the global indigenous community, remains the catalyst for change and the forceful drive to development in indigenous affairs for the United Nations system. If I felt that I have to review the past briefly , it is because I should like to remind to all participants of the responsibilities that we have for forging the international programme for indigenous peoples in future years. All of us have a contribution to make and I warmly encourage you to keep in mind the important lessons learned from the past and to look forwards to continue to make significant constructive proposals and recommendations , and to seek new ways of peaceful and fruitful cooperation , reconciliation in certain cases, when necessary, and mutual understanding. These ideas are based , among others, on the important resolution 1998/13 adopted by the Commission on Human Rights, without a vote.

If I was to be asked why this Working Group has been successful, why it has become one of the largest international human rights gathering, why it continues to grow, I would tell you it is because it has established the practice of hearing the voices of indigenous peoples and the direct messages of indigenous elders, women, youth, community leaders and others on the basis of which a constructive dialogue has developed with the active participation of the observer Governments concerned and the uninterrupted genuine concern of the members of the Working Group. Thus, the direct contact with the beneficiaries of our work has most stimulated the Working Group. In this respect, I should like to underline that the fruitful success of the future cooperation between indigenous peoples, the governments and the United Nations must be based first and foremost on confidence building measures and on the open and full participation of indigenous peoples in the relevant work of the United Nations system.

Let me now to refer to the organization of our work and to the draft provisional agenda of the current session of the Working Group, contained in document E/CN.4/Sub. 2 /AC.4 /1998 /1.

First of all allow me to draw your attention to the new arrangement of the agenda of this session As will be recalled , the Working Group made every effort to improve the methods of its work and to this end it decided at its fifteenth session to separate the items of the part of the work dealing with "review of developments". Accordingly, 3 items should be consider under this part of the draft agenda. Thus, under item 4 , we will hear general statements concerning the review of developments; under item 5, we will debate the principal theme of our session , namely "indigenous peoples-education and language" and; under item 5, we will discuss further aspects related to health and indigenous peoples. We consider these items as a central part of our work. Furthermore, the Commission on Human Rights in its aforesaid resolution 1998/13, inter alia, "urges the Working Group to continue its comprehensive review of developments and the diverse situations and aspirations of the world's indigenous people and welcome
s its proposal to highlight specific themes of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous people" including the priority we are giving to education and language at this session.
The Working Group's decision to focus its attention on the theme of education and language during the current session is mainly prompted :a) because education for all throughout life is a central concern of UNESCO and b) by the reliable information that in certain Countries indigenous peoples face severe difficulties in obtaining full access to education . Indeed, I believe that there are many initiatives in the educational field which need to be reviewed , evaluated and promoted. One recent development of great concern to all of us is the fact that indigenous peoples themselves made every effort to establish in certain Countries their own schools and educational institutions including universities and institutes of research and higher education. I take this opportunity to express deep gratitude on behalf of the Working Group to the Director General of UNESCO Mr. Federico Mayor for accepting my request and designating the Assistant Director General for Culture Mr. Herman Crespo Toral to address the Worki
ng Group on his behalf and to introduce the above-mentioned principal theme : "Indigenous Peoples-education and language" .

Under item 7 of the draft agenda, we are suggesting that we continue to review the area of standard-setting. In this regard, it may be useful and timing to examine whether principles and should be elaborated in relation to private sector energy and mining concerns.

While I am commenting on the standard-setting important part of our work , allow me to inform you that the third session of the open-ended inter-session Working Group established by the Commission on Human Rights to review the draft United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People met here in Geneva in October 1997.

Under the able leadership of Ambassador of Peru Mr. Jose Urrutia , the Working Group adopted at first reading two articles of the aforesaid draft Declaration without any change. This is a small but constructive first step and I sincerely hope that it will serve as an encouragement to all parties concerned.

It may also useful to recall my own continuing role as Special Rapporteur of the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities on the Study on the Protection of Indigenous Heritage and to inform you that the Commission on Human Rights has requested the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to organize a seminar on the daft principles and guidelines on the protection of indigenous heritage elaborated by me .This seminar will take place after the next session of the above-mentioned Human Rights Commission's Working Group on the draft United Nations Declaration probably in Autumn this year. At this time we think that a number of participants will be still in Geneva and might wish to participate to the seminar .

Under item 8 of he provisional agenda , my distinguished Colleague and member of the Working Group and the Sub-Commission Professor Miguel Alfonso Martinez will have an opportunity to present to the Working Group his final report of the Study on Treaties, Agreements and other constructive arrangements between states and indigenous populations. This Treaty study is a major work of enormous importance to indigenous peoples and states and I know that representatives of indigenous people and governments are looking forward to hearing its presentation and in particular its significant substantive conclusions and recommendations. I should like to take this opportunity of congratulating warmly the Special Rapporteur -Professor Miguel Alfonso Martinez on his excellent and extensive study.

Under item 9 of the agenda , I will present to you in my capacity as Special- Rapporteur of the Sub-Commission, my Working Paper, contained in doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/1997/17 on Indigenous People and their Relationship to Land. I am looking forward to your comments and suggestions. Item 10 of the provisional agenda is entitled :Consideration for a Permanent Forum for Indigenous People. Since we last met in July 1997, the Commission on Human Rights has given further consideration to this important subject and, in its resolution 1998/20, inter- alia, authorizes the establishment of an open-ended inter-session ad hoc Working Group to elaborate and consider further proposals relating to the permanent forum. ccordingly, we will have an opportunity during our deliberations to give particular consideration to this matter.

Under item 11 of the agenda, entitled International Decade of the World's Indigenous People, you may raise points and address issues relating to the work we have already done on the Decade. In particular, in my view, it would be helpful for all of you to give some thought to the proposed mid-point review of the Decade which should normally take place during next year or early in the year 2000.

These are some of the views I want to express and the main points , which I felt should be made concerning the organization and the programme of work before us. You will see that as almost every annual session of our Working Group, we are confronted with diverse and comprehensive range of agenda issues. We share a responsibility to complete the work and to ensure that all of you , that wish to express their views get an opportunity to do so. It is my sincere hope that we can constructively and professionally cooperate in order to make this sixteenth session of the Working Group a success.

Let me conclude my opening remarks by recalling that this year , 1998, is the 50th anniversary of the adoption and proclamation of the historic Universal Declaration on Human Rights. This document of paramount importance, stands as an imperative to States to provide conditions in which all citizens can enjoin
their human rights and fundamental freedoms and can live in dignity and justice. I am mindful, however, of the continuing absence in the United Nations of adequate standards for the promotion and protection of the rights of indigenous peoples and of the fact that in certain countries still minimal priority is afforded to indigenous concerns in key areas such as health, development, environment and education.

Please allow me to remind you , as we begin our work, the task that lays before us : namely , to continue to be the generator of ideas and the catalyst for action so that indigenous peoples be equal partners in this great United Nation system , dedicated to peace , human rights, sustainable development and prosperity for all peoples of the globe.